Week 14

I cannot believe this is my last post!!!

It has been a real experience completing this program and student teaching! I have learned so much and met many good people over these past 15 weeks. I will miss these kiddos very much and it will be an emotional departure, I'm sure. 

I am happy to say that I passed EdTPA and can finally relax a bit. Now on to job hunting! Since the position I interviewed for needed to be filled by Dec. 5th, I did not get that position. It is disappointing, but all things happen for a reason. 

My goals going forward (after finding a position) are to;

• Be the best teacher I can be
• Surround myself with positive people
• Never lose sight of why I joined this field
• Manage my time wisely (which is my absolute weakness)
• Be a lifelong learner

I wish you all the best going forward and I thank you for your support along the way!

Week 13

This past week, I had my first experience with modifying and assigning a Wonders online reading assessment. Reading is the biggest area of struggle for the class I work with. Although the class average is not where we would like it to be, 15 of the 20 students who took the test scored 70% or higher. There are 4 students who were absent and still need to take it, however, that is the most successful they have been this quarter...score!

It is hard to believe that I only have 8.5 days left with these students. I have built some strong relationships with them and I it will be hard to say goodbye. The last day will definitely be an emotional one. 

I also had an interview for a position in the district (3rd grade) on Wednesday. I will know the result of that this week, along with my EdTPA score. It has been torturous to wait all this time! Hopefully, it will be worth the wait.

Classroom Confidential

I chose to focus on chapter 12, "Great Teachers Are Lifelong Learners." Although I have not been in this particular field for very long, I definitely have experienced that "famine culture" perspective among many teachers. It is definitely a downer and very negative perspective to have. I love Schmidt's philosophy of sharing ideas, collaborating, and learning from one another. I will definitely follow her advice for new teachers and be sure to surround myself with the "superb teachers" so that I do not fall into the pits of famine culture.

Week 12

My goals for this week were to continue doing what I can to enhance my students' learning for the last few weeks I will have with them, and to start looking into school districts and teaching opportunities for after graduation. Success for both!!!
✅This week began our lessons on fractions in math...which is apparently a dreaded segment in 4th grade. I am pleasantly surprised by how well most seem to be grasping the concepts. Even my lower math students are getting it and I have been seeing genuine light bulbs going off in class! There are a couple of students who display signs of math anxiety, one of which always needs to see the nurse when math is about to begin. She didn't ask to go once, and she was one of the main ones raising her hand to offer answers or comments. 😍 I don't know that it is really my teaching, but rather my efforts to reduce anxiety and help students feel safe in risk taking that is making a difference. We left off on mixed numbers from improper fractions, and I found an informative yet tension easing video to introduce it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggYdPef3Nuk

✅I began looking into local districts a bit online. Then on Tuesday, I was visited by our district's assistant superintendent to see if I am interested in a 3rd grade position available next month! 😀 This is super exciting, although not guaranteed since they hope to have it filled by 12/5 and I won't know my EdTPA score until 11/27. So waiting is now torture!!! In any case, I am happy to know that I have made a positive impression in this district!

My goals for the coming week are to keep on keeping on, tackle the showcase video early for extra credit, and to add more to my portfolio.

Classroom Confidential

Writing is a very important skill that many students dislike, and this chapter offers great strategies to change that. I love the ideas that help to ease anxious students who worry about writing requirements. The ones I liked were coding, having writer's hats, "Author's Hour" and "Do-it-Yourself" journals. 

Coding turns the chore of writing into a fun game that students will need to beat so they can "crack the code" and reveal the message. 

The idea of writer's hats can put a silly spin on writing. Allowing students to decorate their own hat to wear will add to the fun. 

As an encouragement to students, "Author's Hour" allows an at will sharing of writing that nervous students can warm up to. There's no pressure, but they will want to have their turn eventually. Giving students control will definitely ease anxiety.

The "Do-it-Yourself" journal covers those students who fret about how many empty pages there are to fill. I love the idea that students can create a journal that can be as long, or short, as they want, while being free to add to it. 

Week 11

Well, now I know why I felt fatigued most of last week (and am still battling it now)...it was illness (not EdTPA)! I has a fever that went up to 102.6 from Sunday through Tuesday morning. So, I missed teaching on Monday and Tuesday 😞 and feel I did not pay close enough attention to final details on EdTPA before submission. Luckily, I had to view every item on Pearson before the final submission, because I had forgotten one of the assessments! I will happily accept your prayers for a passing score! 

When I returned on Wednesday, I was surprised to be greeted with such enthusiasm and hugs from the students. With it being the week of Halloween and a field trip, there was a lot going on. On Halloween, we still managed to pull some science into the celebration. Students from both 4th grade classes came together to complete a STEM challenge. They worked in groups of 3 to build structures from toothpicks and candy corn. Here's one of them...

Then, we had a field trip to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum by Lincoln Park Zoo on Friday. This tied in well to our unit on vertebrates and invertebrates. We began by having a class that dealt with observation of "Red Wiggler" worms and their behavior.

Then, the students got to visit the various exhibits of the museum, which were awesome!

Water current exploration

Butterfly observatory "Oh wow, it landed on me!"

Butterfly observatory

Live snake show

Brave students touch the snake

My goals for the coming week are to continue doing what I can to enhance my students' learning for the last few week I will have with them, and to start looking into school districts and teaching opportunities for after graduation.

Classroom Confidential

This chapter highlights some important points regarding effective communication with parents. Schmidt's 10 essentials of effective communication are a great guide in this respect. It is also amazing to learn how many cultural considerations there are regarding communication. For example, I never knew that showing the sole of your shoe when crossing your legs is offensive to some Middle Eastern cultures or that the number 4 is associated with death and bad luck in Korean culture. It will be important to consider these ideas when encountering seemingly unusual communication behavior with multicultural parents.

This week's reading comes at a good time, considering that parent teacher conferences are just around the corner. I was considering the use of a student "self survey" already and this reinforced the idea. I intend to be ready with positive insights, work samples, and notes to support my observations. However, I will be sure to set boundaries and be prepared in the event of a disgruntled parent. I am very glad to have this as a reference when conferences come up on the 25th and 26th.

Week 10

This has been a rough week. I haven't had much energy and have felt fatigued almost all week. Maybe it is because this is the last week before I submit my EdTPA and I'm having a subconscious meltdown (which is better than an actual meltdown 😜). 

The teaching part is going well enough, but I really look forward to having my own classroom. There are still random interruptions by my CT or changes to my plans because of something she wants them to do. This is to be expected, but I am ready to try being truly on my own. I am just happy to see growth and learning. The students did well on their module 3 math test and on the science test on cells, plants, and fungi, overall. Those who did not do so well will have the opportunity to make corrections after their parents sign and return the tests. I tried out having a couple of extra credit questions on the science test, since this subject is a struggle for many students. I am happy to report that there were quite a few who got 100% - 107%! One student who frequently scores low on science tests got a 100% and I was THRILLED!

My goals for this week were to submit my EdTPA to my liking and not alienate those I love in the process. So far so good, but I have until Monday, so this remains to be seen. the coming week are to take some time for me and spend more time with my own kids after EdTPA submission. 

Week 9

I am happy to be fully immersed in the role of teacher, but  absolutely exhausted and drained with all of the demands being placed on me right now. Now that I am doing all subjects, the grading load is huge and very time consuming (if I am going to do it well). That coupled with EdTPA finalizing is an excessive workload. So, it is hard to have these other time consumers like this blog and continuing to write long LP's for observations (Yes...of course I have one this week).

My goals for this week were to go through my clips and make an outline of task 2 and to deliver ELA lessons well. Both were a success. My goals for this week are to finish my EdTPA submission to my liking and not alienate myself from everyone in my life who matters in the process.

Week 8

I cannot believe that we are at the half way mark already!  Over these last 8 weeks, I feel I have made substantial progress with most of my students. They feel comfortable enough to write little notes on assignments when they don't understand something, work though problems even when they get stuck, and to challenge solutions to problems (even if they end up being correct). So far, we have had 2 pre and post tests in math and in each case, they nearly doubled their scores. We've had significant growth! We have been working on rounding, which has been difficult for several students. I started with about 15 students who were struggling and now I am down to 4. 

One of the fun things we did in math was a "Roll and Round" game in small groups. Each student in the group rolled 6 dice to create a 6 digit number. Then he/she picked a card that determined which place value to which the number would be rounded. All students worked to complete this on their own sheet and each student got to roll and pick a card. They really enjoyed that. Here are some pictures of the groups.

So, I have been teaching the math and both science classes for the last 2 weeks. Starting next week, I will be adding ELA which means I am taking over EVERYTHING! My biggest struggle at this point is grading. I am trying to offer feedback and tips for success I can honestly say that I cannot see how that will be possible. The amount of time it takes me now is mind blowing. Hopefully, I will be able to figure something out now that I will be doing all subjects.

My goals of picking my clips and finishing the outline were not met so they are still on my agenda for this week. My additional goal is to successfully deliver ELA lessons this week. 

Happy Day off!

Week 7

I can't believe that I am already approaching the halfway mark...it is going by fast! I've learned a whole lot since the first day. I am now very familiar with PowerSchool and did my first grade input using this platform. I have also become familiar with the other platforms used such as ORIGO, BrainPop, and Mystery Science. Plus, there's a great classroom library resource for students to check out books inside the classroom (in addition to library check out) called booksource. It allows teachers to catalog every book and students to check them out. I've also discovered just how many challenges and interruptions there are from day to day. 

My goals for this week were to be approved to stop writing the Trinity lesson plans, begin tackling my EdTPA videos and create my task 2 outline.  
✅I was fortunate enough to be promoted to "Plan Book" lesson planning, so I began teaching both science classes this week and will be adding reading soon. This was very good news.
⛔The process of uploading videos has been rather time consuming, so I did not tackle them as I had hoped (unless I make uploading them count).
⛔I did not create a task 2 outline.

My goals for this week are to create the task 2 outline, go through all my video clips and choose the 2 I will use.

Classroom Confidential

Questioning is a very important part of engaging students in meaningful class discussions. I frequently use the frame of "what do you notice" in questions during math lessons. This gets even the students who are not confident in their computations to be able to make an observation on patterns or similarities and differences. The best part is that no one can be wrong for what they notice. I liked the "Brain Gym" segment of this chapter. It put the mind of a student into perspective, especially pertaining to closed questions. It had not occurred to me that so many spiraling negative thoughts would be going on in a student's mind if unsure of an answer. 

Week 6

This week brought a few of "firsts" for me. On Tuesday, I attended my first school field trip (without being a chaperone). We went to the Homewood Science Center for an STEM engineering activity. We learned about the Homewood native, John Miller, who was considered the "father of modern high-speed roller coasters" due to his component inventions. Then, students got to use various materials to design and create a marble roller coaster. Then they identified failure points and made improvements. (This would have been great when we were doing the engineering design process.) Here are a few of their creations;

   
I also created my first test about plants and photosynthesis for science. Mt CT approved it and offered me suggestions to modify it for the students who are EL learners or have IEP's. I also read the test to those students. This was not as successful as I thought it would be. There were 7 students who scored below 70%. They will be allowed to make corrections for more points on Monday, so we will see how that goes. I also experienced my first lock down drill (which interrupted my test review activity of Quizlet Live on Thursday). 

My goals for this week were to remain sane during the EdTPA lessons, which were Tuesday - Friday, and to have an improved and positive observation #2, which was Monday. 
✅I felt surprisingly calm during the delivery of the EdTPA lessons I recorded. I thought I would be on edge, but I felt much more natural up there than I have before. Hopefully, my viewing of the videos will reflect that, as I have yet to watch those.
✅My second observation was also positive. I was a little nervous, but not like last time. This time she observed a math lesson. She was happy to see how I handled student mistakes or misconceptions in a way that allowed learning without shame or embarrassment. There was even a point where a student was thought to be wrong in his calculation by most of his peers, however he was using higher order thinking in his work. Thankfully, I was able to catch what he was doing and explain how his thinking was absolutely correct. The main criticism was that students were not coming up to the board to show their work. I explained that I had been doing this before, but my CT wanted me to cut that for time sake. I will just have to find a happy medium between what I want to do and what she wants me to do. I also need to work on my pacing.

My goals for the coming week are to be approved to stop writing these time consuming lesson plans that no actual teacher ever writes, begin tackling these EdTPA videos and create my task 2 outline.  

Classroom Confidential

Chapter 9 really emphasizes the need and value of incorporating movement and music into the classroom. I especially love the ideas of using "galloping grammar" when making sentences, and "show me" for discussing elements of stories. That could even be used for any subject! So many learning standards are dry and outright boring at face value. I am seeing that in classroom now. As I read this, it made me think of how I could have used movement to act out pollination in science class, then maybe they would have remembered what it was. My CT doesn't appear to share my view on movement and noise from students (as long as it is constructive) so, I may be waiting until I have my own class to try these ideas out. I'll see what I can get away with while I am here though.  

Week 5

This week I had the opportunity to take part in an after school "Fall Fest" which families were invited to attend from 4-6 p.m. This is a fundraiser for the school PFC organization, which is like a PTA (I assume it stands for Parent/Family/Community but I am not actually sure). It was held outside and included many games, food, prizes, and a pie eating contest. It was HOT...but a lot of fun for me and all the kids. I got to meet some new people and be my loud and silly self without consequence! I ran 2 games in the beginning, since all volunteers had not arrived, and stayed with games the whole time. I was very animated with kids, especially when they'd win, which kids got a kick out of. It was a nice time.


In regards to teaching, one area I am struggling with is pacing. I know that I am moving more slowly through lessons than my CT would like. For example, I spent extra time on word problems since I saw many misunderstandings. However, word problems are not on the summative test. Does this mean I should just push through? 

My goals for this week were to relax, enjoy myself in the classroom, and not lose my mind as I begin EdTPA content. 
✅I felt a more relaxed feeling about all of the student teaching business this week. I tend to over think most things (which I am working on). 
✅By the end of the week, I was enjoying myself in the classroom more so than I have been. I was more myself, with a bit of humor and silliness. I have been a bit on edge about this because my CT is more demanding on order and quiet. Whereas, I am fine with a bit of noise and silliness. 
⛔I did not lose my mind as I began EdTPA content because I did not begin EdTPA content. Although I have this as an unmet goal, I am content with it. The plan was that I would begin my multiplication segment on Thursday, after doing the "Addition: Standard Algorithm" lesson Monday, "Addition Word Problems" lesson Tuesday, and Multiplication: Doubling/Halving 3 Digit Numbers" Wednesday. However, since we got cut short on Monday for the "bus evacuation drill" and based on student performance, I did move on as quickly. Word problems are an area of struggle, so we spent extra time on that. 

My goals for the coming week are to remain sane during the EdTPA lessons (which begin Tuesday), and to have an improved and positive observation #2 (which is tomorrow).


Classroom Confidential

This was a great chapter that highlights some concepts that seem like "no brainers" but have not always been typical of classroom environments. I especially love the idea of the students creating a class resume to highlight skills and differences so that the assets contained in the group are celebrated. Through this chapter, I have learned that "eptness" means creating a classroom environment that utilizes the varying abilities of every student, channels the potential of every student, and makes learning relevant to real life for every student. It means focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses. It means that the students are actively involved in decisions about their learning. It means that mistakes are great opportunities for growth. It means the days of sit quietly and listen to the expert teacher are over.

Of the 10 behaviors that promote eptness, I hope to use them all eventually. I have already been using "expectations" throughout my previous years working with students and am doing so now. Despite any issues my students have upon entering the classroom, I am  trying to figure out how they can succeed. For example, I currently have a super fidgety student that is always messing with some kind of object, which is sometimes distracting to others. Rather than shaming her for this need (or expecting her to sit still), I made her a fidget out of a key ring and letter beads that spell her first name. I let her know that I have noticed her need to fidget and that I want her to be able to do so without distracting others. 

I will also use "encouragement." I make it a point to notice and point out positive behaviors and actions in detail. Commending students for positive actions allows confidence to grow, while telling them exactly what they did that was commendable. I actually had a student leave a math problem undone on homework. However, she wrote a note on it telling me that she didn't understand what to do and asked for help. I spoke to her about it (and wrote a note on the homework), thanking her for letting me know. I then re-explained and offered a model to reference.

I will also use "feedback" to help students have a solid understanding of what went well, what needs work, and exactly why. (I am struggling with this now, because I want to offer detailed feedback and examples for everything I review, but with all this student teaching workload it is not feasible. That bothers me.)   

Week 4

It was another busy week! I am beginning to see that there are frequent variables in the academic schedules from day to day that can make planning difficult. For example, there are several pull outs for students to receive resource, EL, speech, or social work services. As I gave my first summative assessment in math, 3 students were pulled for resource and will now have to make up the test. As of this week, band was added to that mix. We have 6 students in band who will be pulled every Thursday, during a different period each week, but not at the same time. They are split into 2 groups of 3 students each. So, this week one group went during first period and the other during last period. Also, there was an assembly and parade that student attended the last hour of the day on 9/11 and a visit from the Cub/Boy Scouts that each grade level attended at a particular time on Thursday. Our time was right in the middle of math, but they were running late so worked on while waiting to be interrupted. This week coming up, we will have a "bus evacuation drill" and a visit from a local author on Friday. Additionally, 2 students from 3rd grade have joined our math class for enrichment. There is a lot to keep track of and make up for!  

My goals for this week were to begin filming/get students used to the camera, finalize the math segment that I will use for EdTPA, and figure out a better system for managing the workload of life, student teaching, and EdTPA. 

✅I am happy to say that I finally got to film the class and they were mostly unaware of the camera! Audio is going to be a bit of a challenge.

✅My EdTPA math segment has been chosen! I will be doing a multiplication segment on the 5's and 9's facts. 

✅⛔I am beginning to feel better about my workload as I am getting better acclimated to everything. I still feel that a better system, like a very set schedule for tasks outside the classroom, would be helpful. However, the time, effort, trial and error that would be involved is probably not worth it. By the time I'd be in a good groove, it would be December 🤣.

My goals for this week are to relax, enjoy myself in the classroom, and not lose my mind as I begin EdTPA content.

Classroom Confidential

This chapter reinforced my understanding of cultural awareness since many of these concepts were explored in my "Foundations of Teaching Bilingual/ESL Students" course. I like that she points being "culturally blind" as a flaw rather than a virtue. Saying that one does not recognize color or culture, and essentially views everyone as the same, is a denial of meaningful identity and self esteem for students. Such views dismiss a significant part of who our students are in life, and in turn dismisses that part them. 

Week 3

It was another very busy week and I cannot believe how tired I feel on a daily basis! I had my first observation on Friday and had the pleasure of getting to meet my college supervisor for the first time. I taught the math and science lessons for our class this week and it went well enough. I had a stomach bug all last weekend, that was still with me Monday, so my first math lesson was not so great. Otherwise, I am off to a decent start. I am becoming more comfortable with using Origo's (the math program) on-line content for presentation of class material. We had our first math centers on Friday to wrap up a segment and the students seemed to really enjoy it (and so did I). I was able to work directly with the lower performing students and use the "number box" materials for Origo. These include graphic cards, dry erase number lines, and six digit number place value expanders. They seemed to grasp the material well and verbally expressed their enjoyment of the activities. Score! I also attended the first after school staff meeting that focused on lock down procedures.

My goals for this week were to pick up the camera and begin recording, bring in Arabic book translations for my student from Yemen, and to succeed with delivering 2 content areas. Again, I was only partially successful in completing goals.
✅I had 3 Arabic books for my student on Monday! I had translations of the first "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" in the series and the first "Harry Potter" as well as a book of popular Arabic tales with English translations side by side. He seemed happy to have these available and appreciates my effort. It must be so difficult for him.
✅Overall, lesson delivery went well. Students seemed to understand content and all went well enough that my CT is satisfied.
✅⛔I picked up the camera this week, but not until Thursday. I attempted to get it first thing, but there were some communication issues, so that set me back. Then I forgot to bring it Friday morning so I did not get to introduce the students just yet.

My goals for this week are to begin filming/get students used to the camera, finalize the math segment that I will use for EdTPA, and figure out a better system for managing the workload of life, student teaching, and EdTPA. Your prayers are kindly requested.


Classroom Confidential

It is amazing how many seemingly distracted behaviors may actually be self accommodations that aide in maintaining focus. For example, Schmidt mentions chewing on clothing. We have a few students who are frequently chewing on their ID (which is worn around the neck daily), and I find myself deterring them playfully by saying something like, "Are you hungry? ("No.") Then why are you eating your ID?" These self accommodation concepts will have me rethinking these behaviors discouraging them.

Luckily, I am very familiar with the idea of "camouflagers" since I was one in my grade school days. I find myself drawn to the "difficult" students because I know something is probably going on beyond the surface value. We have one student who is frequently off task, talking when we are talking, and very easily distracted. Her attendance is not steady either. From an academic standpoint, I am curious to discover what she is hiding. From reading her "All About Me" I learned that of her 3 wishes, 2 of them were social. She wished for more friends and for people to be nice to her. This tells me that she feels a social disconnection, so I have made it a point to have positive interaction with her daily.      

Week 2

I had a productive and busy week! On Monday, we had our new student from Yemen start. He has no English language comprehension, so I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out ways to help him. I took part in my first grade level meeting during our plan period with the my CT, Ms. Ezeldin (partner 4th grade teacher) principal, and the reading specialist. MTSS groups were determined for tier 2 and tier 3 students and behaviors were discussed. We also determined the plan to begin implementing the Wonders reading curriculum. Next, I delivered 4 science lessons successfully, according to my CT (though I am a bit more critical). Also, I began assisting with homework check in and review.

My goals for this past week were to plan and deliver quality science lessons, determine my EdTPA lesson set and dates of delivery, and introduce the class to the video camera. I accomplished about half of these goals. 
⛔I did not get to expose the class to the video camera as I had hoped. Although I got back all 24 permission slips originally distributed, the new student's slip did not go out until Friday. It took a bit longer since he has no English language. I used Google Translate to put my letter and permission into Arabic and then had the Arabic speaking EL teacher proof it. (I am glad I took that extra step because "student release form" translated into something like releasing a student from prison 🤣. We had a good laugh about that!)  Hopefully he will bring that back Tuesday, as I asked him to through Google Translate. 
✅⛔As for my EdTPA planning goal, I have a plan to use Origo lessons 1.8 through 1.10 which deal with multiplication of whole numbers using doubles strategies. I have a tentative date range of Mon. 9/9-Wed. 9/11 for delivery and recording. This depends on my comfort level with Origo math lesson delivery (1.5-1.7) that I will be doing this week.
✅ I accomplished the delivery of my first science lessons at an acceptable level of quality. It wasn't perfect, but the lessons seemed successful enough to please my CT. These lessons focused on the engineering design process and will sum up with conducting an investigation. Here are some pictures from the first lesson, using the process to complete the "Marshmallow Challenge" in small groups.

 

Students are having a blast building the tallest possible tower with 20 sticks of raw spaghetti, 1 yard of masking tape, 1 yard of string, and 1 marshmallow. The detailed lesson is required by the district and can be found here;

Marshmallow Challenge Lesson

Week 1

I am student teaching in a 4th grade classroom for the whole semester. The teacher I am working with has been great! She made me a personalized lanyard for my ID and had a neat folder of important information that would help me get started. These included IEP/504 summaries and logins for the major applications used in the district. She has been very open and welcoming, as have been all the other staff so far. One of the 6th grade teachers even made my a personalized shirt!

This week was spent primarily observing the class.  However, there were not many opportunities to observe direct teaching since the students began MAP testing the day I started. Also, teachers here do not begin submitting lesson plans until next week. Since the first 2 weeks are focused on relationship building, establishing routines and MAP testing, I can see the logic in this.Since it is not my style to just sit there, I jumped in and assisted or got involved wherever I could. I helped troubleshoot technology issues during Map testing, kept students on task and helped during activities, and performed various tasks for the teacher.

Although lessons haven't officially begun, I got to see students give oral presentations of their "all about me" puzzle pieces, read independently, and participate in various writing mini lessons and 4 science lessons. The highlight of this week was being asked to deliver the science lesson for our class yesterday and today. Since the science lesson is taught to the other 4th grade first, she figured it would be a good opportunity to have me try out. My teacher said it went well yesterday and asked me to continue today. So, beginning Monday I will be planning and delivering the science lessons!

My goals for this week were to learn all students' names, send out and receive signed permission slips for video recording, and become familiar with routines. I am happy to say that I had all 24 students names down on the first day! (I even had about 1/3 of the partner 4th grader's names memorized too! They come in daily for science while our class goes across the hall for social studies.) I also succeeded in sending a nice welcome letter and permission slip on Wednesday. As of today, I have gotten back 20 of 24 and all parents have given permission so far! As for learning routines, these are still emerging but I have become familiar with those currently established. So, I believe I have accomplished my goals for the week. My goals for the coming week are to plan and deliver quality science lessons, determine my EdTPA lesson set and dates of delivery, and introduce the class to the camera.

Classroom Confidential

I hope to use all of the intelligences in my teaching whenever possible. Of course, simultaneous use of them all is not always feasible. So I think it is important to ensure that the kinesthetic, body smart students are a focus. Since these students need movement to thrive, it will be imperative to have that needed movement on a daily basis. 

I definitely plan to use Schmidt's whole brain learning approaches of building, patterns, experiments, show time, and publishing in my teaching. Although I would love to use them all, I imagine that the administration of the district I will be teaching in would have some say in this. It may be hard to make the case for imaginative play with students out of the primary grades. Who knows? I just know that the traditional paper and pencil work of my time is not feasible. It wasn't great for me then and it's not right for students now.